Lifestyle

BarCamp Canberra returns for its 8th year

BarCamp Canberra is a free annual event that brings together hundreds of Canberrans for a day of ad-hoc presentations and workshops on topics from technology and government to education and art.

Returning to Canberra for the eighth time in nine years, the event will be held this year between 9am and 5pm on Saturday 9 April at the Canberra Innovation Network’s space on Level 5, 1 Moore Street Civic.

Marking its eighth year with a change of name, BarCamp Canberra will be known in future as Unconference Canberra.

“BarCamp Canberra has gone from strength to strength over the years, attracting a wide range of interesting and thought-provoking speakers, as well as a great community of participants who share the spirit of the event,” said lead Unorganiser Craig Thomler.

“This year we decided to change the name to help include new people and a broader range of talk topics in this fantastic Canberra institution. Now known as Unconference Canberra, the event shares the same bottom-up community approach and enthusiasm as in previous years, with a revitalised group of unorganisers working to make this year the best yet.”

As a community run not-for-profit event, Unconference Canberra will bring together up to 200 Canberrans and visitors from a wide range of backgrounds, ages and disciplines across multiple presentation and workshop streams to present, participate in and discuss topics such as:

social innovation

digital governance and democracy

Web and technology

Science communication

Critical thinking

Sustainability

Education

Art and design and

the environment.

Any attendee can nominate on the day to speak on any topic for twenty minutes, allowing for wide-ranging discussions and uniquely thoughtful presentations.

This approach has been highly successful, with attendance growing from sixty people in 2008 to over two hundred in 2014, the last time the event was held.